Such a brat I am :)

We don't have cable and only have like 3 channels on TV. BY CHOICE. I hate TV more than anyone I know, my husband and kids will tell you this. Although my kids like to watch TV on some nights after a long day, not everyday but sometimes. My older kids and my husband are REALLY into the Heroes series. So we bought the kids the first season and they finished that in a month. So my daughter asked and asked if she could the next season. Daddy searched all targets to find and found it. That target also had the next 2 season for a great price. A nice mom would just hand out the seasons all together and make them happy, right? Well I'm not like that ;) I took season 3 and placed in  a cabinet, took a picture, downloaded the picture and made it my background on my PC. Hannah sees the background and looks in every spot known to man in this house to find it. Its hidden well :) We will see where the DVD pops up next!!!!

Sweet moments

Happy Valentines dear friends. We have a had a great day of fellowship with my friend Lisa and her 3 wild children :) I love having them over because her children play just like mine, wild and sweet. I love talking with Lisa because we can open our bibles are get right to the good stuff. God is good! The kids played, we talked, they left, we played outside and now my kiddos are having down time. Much needed. Jeff is at the library studying for a few things. He is taking a Solar power class and I'm so excited to see what we can do with that. He got the job we have been praying for and he starts in a week and half. Our routine here has been off with having him home all day but he has been building rooms downstairs and getting things finished. I'm waiting for spring now so I can garden. I started all my indoor seeds the other day and have them in the sun :) This year I'm hoping that ill be able to stay on the weeds as I don't have a newborn this year. I'm pretty excited about this season of life of teaching the kids to have a garden and help.
 In homeschool news the wheels are spinning like always. So the only thing that changed was Hannahs work. She was doing AHL from MFW but she didn't really like it. It was alot of boring reading and nothing grabbed her. I don't believe a children should ever be bored with learning and if its not getting them excited we don't waste our time. So we sold her MFW and ordered from Queens Homeschool Supplies. If you haven't looked at there stuff you should. Its the Charlotte Mason style which is how we roll :) She got to pick all the books and studies she wanted for her subjects. I cant not say enough how awesome their stuff is. She picked 3 bible studies for this year and I'm pretty excited about the ones she picked.We are still using MFW with Cody but very relaxed with it. We like lapbooking and notebooking right now. The littles are still using MFW K but again I had to tweak the heck out of it to make it work. For the new school year I'm not wasting my money on anything for the littles but just doing the things we already do. Again very relaxed about it all. Our focus is laying the foundation of Christ down for them first. We have feast days coming up and we put all school stuff aside for those times. Another reason we school year round.

 Well I better get to looking for things while baby is napping :)

The Ramblings

My goal for this new year was to keep my blog updated twice a week, ummmm I'm slacking! We have been dealing with a nasty nasty cold and now it has spend to Hannah, Cody and ME! Laurabeth is having no luck what so ever with this. She has a second ear infection in a month and the cold is just hanging on to her. I took her to the Urgent care yesterday after noon after we spent the day at the Magic House. Her lungs are clear but  she has so much fluid draining she is just coughing so hard. She falls alseep faster than ever and in weird spots. Ill be walking with her and all of a sudden she is out! Like that! She plays hard and then it comes back and she is out and coughing.Its back and forth all day. I wouldnt have taken her yesterday if Id known she was going to bad again. They gave her another round of antibiotics but I'm treating it with breast milk and lemon juice right now. Prayers this leaves my house soon please.
 On the school note we are doing bird watching and scripture writing. The bird watching has been so fun. We have 2 redheaded woodpeckers that comes every morning for their food and then we had the sweetest chickadee come eat all the time. The kids wouldn't even scare her. Well my dang cat decided she would make herself some lunch with that bird! Not something we liked to watch. We had our break and then even a longer break with the sickness. So much is changing here and as always God lead. We are laying out our plan the homestead come this spring and getting excited to plant some seeds! The kids cant wait. we moved my garden over by my daughters volleyball court were there is more sand and more sun and I can keep on eye on the wildlife. I learned last year that living a cornfield and prairies deer and turkeys like to eat my stuff EVERY NIGHT! So things moved and we will be putting a fence around it. I'm thinking of doing raised beds this year.Just a thought though. The ground over there is so nice but I do want to keep it kind medium sized as I don't want to be overwhelmed. Last year I had a little baby and a toddler and this I have no baby:(( So I know we can keep up much better.If the Lord blesses us with one I'm sure I will keep up if its a smaller size. My sister and mom are doing gardens and e plan on doing canning days and giving each other the cans of what we have. That way we all have plenty and different things for the fall winter. I'm getting another flock of chickens this springs and pretty darn excited about that. I gave my flock to my sister as mine were getting on the porch and pooing and my husband was going to shoot them. So off they went and now we have build another fence for the coop. I kept my ducks because they are my favorite of all. My dang dog killed my momma duck a few months right after she laid herself a bunch of eggs and was nesting. Bella has been causing more problems than helping here. So she is looking for a new family with no livestock. She is awesome for hiking and playing but she has alot of hound in her and my birds seem to be on her list of things that are so good to eat!
 The kiddos are doing good. Chase and Hannah are doing amazing at their piano lessons. Violin is next and we plan to have them do bluegrass. Laurabeth is now climbing and being a toddler with her sister now. So sad how fast they grow. She still isn't talking but Ethan was a really late talker so I know she has alot to sat just waiting fot the moment when I'm not watching. Jolene has turned into a little momma and loves helping right along in the kitchen. She pulls up a chair and is my helper for every mel it seems. She does like to have thing her way so I do spend alot of my correcting her that this momma is the RIGHT one not her! Chase is still my little guy. Loves to snuggle and have his binkie. Yes I said his binkie. Only at night though. He will be  5 in less than 2 weeks, my goodness. Ethan is turning into such a great little man. Loves books and coloring and singing us opera. That boy has a voice like no other. He loves putting on puppet plays with his siblings. Cody is my outdoors men. He got a new shotgun for Christmas that is his pride and joy. He also got another go cart so this child is doing everything right so he can "play" outside. Hannah is still my right hand man. She is amazing. School is always easy for her. She still volunteers at Exceptional Equestrians and takes piano. She also babysits for people. She is my crafty child who doesn't get any of that from me. The husband has working around the house trying to avoid the wife as much as possible because I have a list a mile long for him. I'm good like that :)
 Id like to write about all the changes here on the Ownby Homestead but I think that will be another post. Dinner is going and my right hand man is holding my sick baby while she let me blog. Good girl she is.
 PS id love to post pics but again blogger is being MEAN!

Long time no post ;)

Alrighty. I just got all my kids happy and content so lets see if I can actually post today! We have been busy like everyone else that homeschools or just plain  has a life ;) We were blessed a few weeks ago with a family conference with Steve and Teri Maxwell. Two nights of pure joy. You should look them up if you need help with being a wife, mother, teacher or sister in Christ. Anyways I bought a few of their books and I cant tell you enough good stuff about them! We started doing the chorepacks, were you clip a pack of chores  that are writen on cards to your child's shirt/pants and it tells them what to do for the morning/supper. Those little clips have BEEN huge in our house. I do still have to remind a few times out of the week but that's only because we have been extra busy. A friend was going to let me borrow her book Managers of Their Home but have yet to receive that and I'm dying to get my hands on it. Im in the works of starting a bible study on their book Sweet Journey. Daughters and mothers studing together sounds pretty awesome to me right now.
 Around the house we have been trying to simplify and get rid of stuff that just bothers me. I had a WHOLE trash bag of socks that didn't have a match and needed to go. I have shelves of stuff ready for a new home. Time time time where is the time for these extra chores to do? We are almost ready for our "school break" with the holidays coming up. Yes, we unschool but that by no means means we don't teach our kids. We don't break like some kids do a summer break, we break like we focus our time and activities around the Lord. We serve others, make crafts for elders, we make gifts, we pour our time soaking up the love and happiness this time of year brings. I write this for a few reason. People are so nosey and rude and make stupid comments to me about how celebrating Christmas isn't Christian. I wasn't born yesterday, so for you to make a comment so off the wall to a grown woman who CLEARLY knows her Lord and the teachings of the WORD, is just down right crappy. I have studied the " behind the reason for Christmas" and how it was started. I also study very very hard on the Feast days. My house celebrates ALL the Holy days Feats and  yes Hanukkah. For my family, Christmas is about Jesus rather you like it or not. Im not worshipping a tree or some pagan idea you have. This time of year ALOT of people have Jesus on their mind and they are happy and asking questions and praying more than they usually do. Would that make Jesus happy? I light my house with lights, trees whatever I want. My kids get pure joy from hearing mommy sing in the kitchen and making special cookies and shopping for them. Our faith in the Lord grows more and more everyday and I Do NOT need someone to send me another message telling me I'm not christian for doing so. Passover,Days of Unleavened Bread, Feast of First Fruits, Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement and Feast of Tabernacle are things we do in this house along with Christmas. Im pretty sure Jesus is ok with us praising Him during these times.
 I have ever said how much I love carrying my babies on my back? I have always done so but man oh man I love so much! I get so much down and the baby is so happy. Although for my hair I might be bald in the back. Im trying to let my hair grow out but not that Laurabeth hangs from it I'm rethinking that whole " I look awesome with long hair" idea. I have been cloth diapering for over 5 years now and I have a love hate relationship with them. I just sold all my stash and now I'm dieing to buy more. Laurabeth has the most sensitive skin ever! The cloth diapers I could never strip them enough to get the crap out. Pampers are causing rashes and leaking out of them. Jolene is almost potty trained so Ill stick with pampers for her. I have a sample of diaper soap I'm going to try with the new diapers I try and just go with it. I hate the cemicals on the babies from the pampers. So cloth it is. Even though I just said ill prolly keep the diposies on Jolene you know ill cloth her to because its healthier and cuter right? I change my mind on everything so MUCH and fast I'm shocked my husband can keep up, but he does.

 Well I guess I better run. Have a blessed night and God bless you all :)

Moments

 Its been along time from my last post. Im not going to post much tonight. Just pictures of my beautiful family. Im so blessed to be called Mom by these amazing children.

Homestead update

It doesn't feel much like a weekend with the husband working 7 days a week. He does get Monday off. He has been pretty sick with congestion and coughing and feeling horrid. He works right through it but comes home to boss me around and tell me he isn't lifting a finger around here ;) Glad he gets a day off to regroup. Ever since I went almost ( 85%) whole foods I have had more energy than ever! Its been awesome! The change was hard the first week but got alot better when the headache went away. Id say that was from the sugar withdraw. I have been on the floor playing with the kids and hiking alot and my house is staying some what picked up. Cant really be picked up with the Indians but its ok. The attitude change has been big also. I'm not so grumpy. Yeaaaaa from the kids! I have been working out but in different ways each days. I rock TaeBo and sooo love that. But now that its not 10000 degrees outside we have been hiking. I feel like Sacajawea with Laurabeth on my back. Thats a  mighty good work out. I have been doing weights with that. I'm seeing results in my back and my legs for sure. My belly is slowly going down. Ill be so glad when my ab wall goes together again.
 On the homeschool homestead we have been blessed in many ways. The Lord showed me a path I had been wanting to take for awhile now but was to scared to take. It has been pretty cool to say the least. So many changes. I had posted before about unschooling the kids. we have tried so many curriculum's out there and im just not a planner and I don't like things laid out for me. Drives me and the kids NUTS. So we said good bye to the planner,curriculum and anything else that reminded us of "school". Well not 100% because my littles still use MFW because they like it but I don't use the planner at all which was a waste of 100 dollars. The husband is a math guy so the kids are using Saxon math with the cd rom. They also write their memory verses with the bible. But everything else is from life and living books. Its a sigh of fresh air. When your child leads the way in learning it will blow your mind. We are the type of people who get up in the morning and say lets do this and go. we adventure and we love the outdoors. My Ethan, who has Asperger's, does need at least a plan. If we decide to go somewhere or even want to go outside to the playground he needs to know for how long we will be there and every detail we plan to do. Now he isn't like that everyday. Just some. So we are very careful with how we do things but once we tell him and he gets every detail he needs he is the first in the car or the first be on the swings out back. The amount of time with my kids now that I'm not bogged down with the planner is pure awesomeness. We are teaching our kids the joy and life skills they need for life now a days.
 So we made some homemade cloth diaper soap yesterday. The one I was making was with borax and that was a big no no. After many rashes and many times of me throwing my diapers against the wall I found out it was my soap. Well someone posted a recipe with the borax. I shall let you know in a month how my diapers are doing :) Always something. Today is Sept 1st. I have to HUGE birthdays this month. My first baby turns 14 YIKES and my baby baby turns 1 !! Yes its a bitter sweet month for me. Whats eve sadder is I'm usually pregnant by now and I'm not seeing a baby as of yet. Its all Gods timing and I'm cool with that. I'm in this new health habit right now so maybe He is just letting me lose some weight and then bless us.

 Laurabeth playing in the water a few days ago.

 Heres the soap bar for the diaper soap. Its the same soap I use for the laundry.

 Jolene mixing the melted soap and wasing soda.

  Laurabeth is just to cute!

 My  husband took his bobcat and cleared a massive gocart path in our fields and creek for the kids. This is the path heading to our creek.

 Jolene loves the creek. Today they only found one lonely toad.

 Yes Hannah went hiking in the creek in that outfit. Whatever works. She was just happy she made it out with no mud on her sweater ;)

 Laurabeth was mad we were done!

 Cody heard something.......it was nothing.....we think....

 I guess I better go and read my email and do that laundry.  

Ramblings

Well fall is almost here and I'm sitting here waiting for it. Cooler weather is so what I need. we had really nice weather and then BAM it was gone. I'm not complaining but I'm a fall winter person. As most of my kids are too. We have been field tripping alot these last few weeks. Kids learning like never before. My little Laurabeth is almost walking.SCARY! I have many wild Indians in this house and having a baby Indian on that floor is never a good idea. My days are now full of " Oh my goodness, Watch out!, grab her, Laurabeth NO!" Yes my Cindy Crawford Meaningful beauty is getting a run for its money here. Laura is either fighting of big sister Jolene who thinks she is a rag doll or the wild Indians are running past her so fast she wipes out. The best spot for her to be is latched on to the jugs so know one can hurt her or bump her. Jolene is like a dozen bulls wrapped into a child's body. She is wild and full of adventure. She reminds me of Cody when he was little.
 Our life in the homeschool world has changed yet again. This time it is where it was before only difference is I am totally cool with it. we have learned text books are my kids worst enemies. I pulled them out they hid. I yelled, and sure enough they yelled back. I said sit they said see ya. See the pattern there. We hated it. So I did what every crazy child loving mom would do. I got rid of all the text books. I know I know you are saying what did she do. Her kids will never learn those hippies. I bought My Fathers World curriculum which is a CM method. No real texts books. As we are plugging away at that we just weren't happy to sit and school and make sure this was done and that. They just weren't excited about learning. Another we homeschool is that out kids have a passion to learn. Not the sit here for X amount of time and write X paper for a grade that just tells your brain isn't working. Now I have always been the type of person that goes down the path no one really does. I like adventure and I LOVE to get out and explore the world. Always have. I'm not sure if its because I hit 30 in July and I grew my bog girl panties or what. Maybe it was when I started this homeschool journey many years ago, even knowing how I wanted it to go and what I liked, I fell in the homeschool trap. The trap that no matter what you do you will be judged. Well that scared me I guess. Thinking that now my kids future is in my hands and I'm surely going to screw them up if I don't use use curriculum or go here or start our morning with this. I was scared that I wouldn't be that homeschool mom I seen at the group or the homeschool mom who is crammed down my throat. 6 years into it and I finally can say PROUDLY that I'm not that homeschool mom. I'm just a wife, mother, sister and daughter. I'm the one who rebels against the normal and does things on my own terms. I like we unschool. I thrive my kids thrive my husband laughs and likes the wife he married. Theres reasons for the seasons in life we have. Nothing here really has changed. We do things the way we want. No planner, no text books, no time. For the first time in EVER my 11 year old went to the library and pulled he liked and didn't complain ONE TIME! That was huge for him. He pulled books on fossils, rocks, survival guides, insects. All things he loves and learns on his own. Theres no pressure from me or dad to read it. He just does. Hannah has always been a learner and lover of books so when this child goes to the library she brings back the library! Like I said no pressure to learn. Its just what kids do when they are happy and can pick what they like and learn from it. The world is huge and we plan to use it. Unschooling isn't right for everyone. maybe just a few of us really. Its we like and its how we learn and grow.
 As I'm writing this its FINALLY raining! Hannah and Cody are at the picnic with my mom for her work and it happens to rain on that day! hahaha. Boy do we need the rain. The farmers out here are already cutting their corn because its a loss. The only thing growing in the weeds.

 We have some really neat field trips coming up. Friday we are apple pickin and then the Friday after that we are going to Pioneer Boones farm thingy. They will learn some pioneer skills. The Nature Reserve is having their Prairie Day On the 15th and they do that every other year and we never miss it. Its always tons of fun. This year I think we will dress the part. Our own halfpint will have to get a dress.Well I better get off here the littles are attacking the craft room with full force! Blessings.